Given the first quarter of his season has been wrecked by a concussion and ongoing groin injury, it is no surprise Charlie Dixon said he is “pumped to be out running again”.
The Gold Coast SUNS big man is in line to play just his third game of the season after he made it through his comeback match in the NEAFL last weekend unscathed and was named in an extended 25-man squad for Sunday’s match with the Kangaroos.
Dixon was substituted in the opening round win over Richmond after he was concussed in the first term, and the groin problem flared up a couple of weeks later on a dirty night for tall forwards in the round 2 loss to Fremantle in the wet in Perth.
Despite the setbacks, the 23-year-old said he is raring to go if given a crack at North Melbourne on Sunday.
“I sort of had a run around in the twos at the weekend, played a little bit more game than expected, which was good,” Dixon said.
“Body’s feeling real good and been doing all the main training and stuff like that.
“I’m hoping to get a call-up this weekend.”
In his absence, fellow key forwards Sam Day and Tom Lynch have fired at various times, but GC SUNS coach Guy McKenna has never shied away from stating his preference is to have three tall forwards operating together.
“That’s always good when the forwards are kicking goals and taking marks and stuff like that,” Dixon said.
“If there’s a lot of ball, that’s always good.
“We can hopefully capitalise on it like we did at the weekend (against GWS).”
Dixon was part of the SUNS outfit which recorded its first win over the Kangaroos last season in shocking conditions at Metricon Stadium.
Personnel hasn’t changed too much, but the current North team is a far different side to the one that visited the Gold Coast in 2013, given its 4-2 start to the year, and the type of hard, tight footy it is playing.
“North are sort of on fire at the moment, playing some really good footy.
“We’re playing some good footy, as well. We’ve just got to carry that in to their game.
“We’ve got a pretty good record against North. We beat them last time we played.
“I think we just need to go in with a lot of confidence and play our footy and I reckon we can do it.”
